Planning a hunting expedition and worried if you have the right kind of weapons? Well, all you need to ensure is whether your hunting knives are sharp enough. You will notice your blades will begin to wear out and become dull as you use them in time to come.
One needs to sharpen knives from time to time if they want to have a successful hunt, no matter how boring it seems. If you don’t spare time and effort to sharpen your knife, you may not have the extraordinary experience you always wanted.
How to Sharpen a Hunting Knife?
One needs to learn and understand when the knife will need to be sharpened. It’s important to understand our knife and its needs if we are going to go hunting. Outdoor knives may become dull sooner than we realize we need to be prepared to sharpen them.
Give this article a quick read, and you will know of all the valuable tips and tricks to sharpen your knife correctly. One needs to be a little patient because it requires you to have some amount of skill to ace it.
You need both time and effort to do all the sharpening. To check whether you are doing it right, you should pick up some cheap knives at home to practice every day and later move on to that precious one piece once you have mastered the art of sharpening correctly.
Whenever you are going out to hunt, you must know it won’t work with a blunt hunting knife. The catch you waited on all along may not mean anything if you aim it with an ineffective weapon for a knife. If you go to the great outdoors often, you must be able to sharpen your knife perfectly.
Understanding Your Blade Angle
If you want to sharpen your blade correctly, you must know the angle of your blade. Without getting the right angle, sharpening may not be easy to do.
Once you know and understand the angle of your blade, you can set out for your hunting expedition. For the basic guidelines of sharpening, you must give this article a read. Different kinds of knives have different needs.
Whetstone Must Be Used
Whetstone is known to be a tool used to sharpen and shape knives. If you are still learning to shape the blades, you must try on a whetstone.
Ceramic and diamond will be great options to practice. These stones are rough and hence remove more material from your blade. Those with a lot of experience use these stones. Whetstones are a great option to pick for beginners.
One Must Be Prepared
You will have to prepare your whetstone before having to use it straight. The first thing we do is clean the stone of residue. The stone should be soaked in water for some time.
While you are using it you will notice, the whetstone will easily slide around. You must keep the holder around so it will keep it in place.
You must add a teaspoon of oil or so, and you will be good to go.
Sharpie Trick
This trick is known as a quick trick when it comes to sharpening your blade. You have to draw a line on the knife bevel with a sharpie and your edge will be pointed before you know.
When it’s done, you can stroke the knife a couple of times over the stone. The trick to note here is that the sharpie you drew would be gone if the angle were right, but if it’s still there, you need to work on your angle.
That’s the way to know if you are going right.
Strokes Should Be Counted
Most experts say that we need at least five strokes on every side. However, for knife lovers, it will be hard to count the number of strokes each time we want to sharpen a knife.
If it’s a really dull hunting knife you are looking to sharpen, you will need quite a few strokes on each side.
You should make sure that you only take the same amount of material from both sides, and that’s possible only if the number of strokes is the same on both sides.
Summary
How to sharpen a hunting knife? You just need a little know-how of sharpening blades, and you will be great to go. One doesn’t need to worry so much even if they can’t get the angle of the knife right because sharpening will be only learned with practice and over a period of time. What you need to do is focus on your basics.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How To Sharpen a Hunting Knife Correctly?
You can sharpen a hunting knife only if you know your blades and understand the angles to initiate sharpening.
What Is the Best Knife Sharpening Method?
Whetstone is a rectangular stone block used to sharpen the edge of the knife. It keeps your knife in the best condition.
